Reliability and Validity of Abbreviated Surveys Derived from the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire: The Study of Osteoporotic Fractures

Kodjebacheva, Gergana; Coleman, Anne L.; Ensrud, Kristine E.; Cauley, Jane A.; Yu, Fei; Stone, Katie L.; Pedula, Kathryn L.; Hochberg, Marc C.; Mangione, Carol M.

doi:10.1016/j.ajo.2009.09.008

« Previous Next »American Journal of Ophthalmology
Volume 149, Issue 2 , Pages 330-340, 1 February 2010

Reliability and Validity of Abbreviated Surveys Derived from the National Eye Institute Visual Function Questionnaire: The Study of Osteoporotic Fractures

Gergana Kodjebacheva
- Jules Stein Eye Institute and the Department of Ophthalmology, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
- Department of Community Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Anne L. Coleman
- Jules Stein Eye Institute and the Department of Ophthalmology, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
- Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
- Inquiries to Anne L. Coleman, Jules Stein Eye Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, 100 Stein Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095-7004
Kristine E. Ensrud
- Division of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research, VA Medical Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jane A. Cauley
- Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Fei Yu
- Jules Stein Eye Institute and the Department of Ophthalmology, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
- Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California
Katie L. Stone
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Kathryn L. Pedula
- The Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Portland, Oregon
Marc C. Hochberg
- Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, Maryland
Carol M. Mangione
- Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

Accepted 11 September 2009.

Purpose

To test the reliability and validity of questionnaires shortened from the National Eye Institute 25-item Vision Function Questionnaire (NEI VFQ-25).

Design

Cross-sectional, multicenter cohort study.

Methods

Reliability was assessed by Cronbach α coefficients. Validity was evaluated by studying the association of vision-targeted quality-of-life composite scores with objective visual function measurements. A total of 5482 women between the ages of 65 and 100 years participated in the year-10 clinic visit in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures (SOF). A total of 3631 women with complete data were included in the visual acuity (VA) and visual field (VF) analyses of the 9-item NEI VFQ (NEI VFQ-9), which is defined for those who care to drive, and a total of 5311 women with complete data were included in the VA and VF in the analyses of the 8-item NEI VFQ (NEI VFQ-8). To assess differences in prevalent eye diseases, which were ascertained for a random sample of SOF participants, 853 and 1237 women were included in the NEI VFQ-9 and the NEI VFQ-8 analyses, respectively.

Results

The Cronbach α coefficient for the NEI VFQ-9 scale was 0.83, and that of the NEI VFQ-8 was 0.84. Using both questionnaires, women with VA worse than 20/40 had lower composite scores compared with those with VA of 20/40 or better (P < .001). Participants with mild, moderate, and severe binocular VF loss had lower composite scores compared with those with no binocular VF loss (P < .001). Compared with women without chronic eye diseases in both eyes, women with at least 1 chronic eye disease in at least 1 eye had lower composite scores.

Conclusions

Both questionnaires showed high reliability across items and validity with respect to clinical markers of eye disease. Future research should compare the properties of these shortened surveys with those of the NEI VFQ-25.